Apparatus including electrochemical devices and heat exchanger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11557775-B2
Application number	US-202017127387-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2020
Priority date	Dec 20, 2019
Publication date	Jan 17, 2023
Grant date	Jan 17, 2023

Abstract

An apparatus can include a housing, a plurality of electrochemical devices disposed within the housing, and a heat exchanger disposed within the housing. The heat exchanger can be faced with an oxidant-containing gas outlet surface of at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices. The electrochemical devices can include a stack of solid oxide fuel cells, a battery, or a solid oxide electrolyzer cell.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a housing;
a plurality of electrochemical devices disposed within the housing; and
a heat exchanger disposed within the housing and faced with an oxidant-containing gas outlet surface of at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices without an intermediate component between the heat exchanger and the oxidant-containing gas outlet surface.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrochemical devices comprise a first and second electrochemical device, and wherein the heat exchanger is faced with an oxidant-containing gas outlet surface of the first electrochemical device and an oxidant-containing gas outlet surface of the second electrochemical device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising an oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber enclosed in the housing, wherein the oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is in fluid communication with the first and second electrochemical devices, and wherein the heat exchanger is disposed within the oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is disposed on one side of the first and second electrochemical devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is disposed between the first and second electrochemical devices.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of electrochemical devices are arranged in a grid, and wherein the oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is a central oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber in fluid communication with at least 4 electrochemical devices including the first and second electrochemical devices.

7. The apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising:
a fuel gas outlet chamber disposed between and in fluid communication with the first and second electrochemical device.

8. The apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising:
an oxidant-containing gas inlet chamber in fluid communication with the first and second electrochemical devices.

9. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the heat exchanger comprises a first branch and a second branch extending in opposite directions, wherein the first branch is coupled to a first oxidant-containing gas inlet chamber in fluid communication with the first electrochemical device, and the second branch is coupled to a second oxidant-containing gas inlet chamber in fluid communication with the second electrochemical device.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the heat exchanger is the first heat exchanger, and wherein the apparatus further comprises a second heat exchanger disposed in the fuel gas outlet chamber.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the heat exchanger disposed in the fuel gas outlet chamber is coupled to a fuel gas inlet chamber in fluid communication with at least one of the first and second electrochemical devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger comprises a reformer, a vaporizer, or a combination thereof.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a fuel gas inlet manifold attached to at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices, wherein the fuel gas inlet manifold contains a fuel gas inlet chamber in fluid communication with the at least one electrochemical device;
a fuel gas outlet manifold attached to at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices, wherein the fuel gas outlet manifold contains a fuel gas outlet chamber in fluid communication with the at least one electrochemical device; or
a combination thereof.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the fuel gas inlet and outlet manifolds comprises a recess configured to receive the at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the fuel gas inlet manifold and the fuel gas outlet manifold are attached via compression.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the fuel gas inlet manifold and the fuel gas outlet manifold are external to the plurality of electrochemical devices.

17. An apparatus, comprising:
a housing:
a plurality of electrochemical devices disposed within the housing;
a heat exchanger disposed within the housing and faced with an oxidant-containing gas outlet surface of at least one or more of the plurality of electrochemical devices;
a first oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber disposed between a first electrochemical device and a second electrochemical device of the plurality of electrochemical devices; and
a second oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber disposed between a third electrochemical device and a fourth electrochemical device of the plurality of electrochemical devices,
wherein the heat exchanger is disposed within one of the first and second oxidant-containing gas outlet chambers;
wherein the first oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is in fluid communication with oxidant-containing gas outlet surfaces of the first and second electrochemical devices; and
wherein the second oxidant-containing gas outlet chamber is in fluid communication with oxidant-containing gas outlet surfaces with the third and fourth electrochemical devices.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electrochemical device comprises a stack of solid oxide fuel cells, a battery, or a solid oxide electrolyzer cell.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger includes a surface area that is directly exposed to the oxygen-containing gas outlet surface, wherein the surface area is at least 25% of a total area of the oxygen-containing gas outlet surface.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of electrochemical devices comprises at least one gas channel extending between the oxygen-containing gas outlet surface and an opposite oxygen-containing gas inlet surface, wherein the heat exchanger is exposed to a gas outflow end of the at least one gas channel.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain Ceramics
• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung

Inventors

• Loe Claire
• Takagi Yuto
• Feldman Brian P
• Pietras John D
• Megel Stefan
• Schnetter Jens
• Kusnezoff Mihails

Classifications

• H01M8/04014 Primary

  Heat exchange using gaseous fluids; Heat exchange by combustion of reactants · CPC title

• H01M8/249

  comprising two or more groupings of fuel cells, e.g. modular assemblies · CPC title

• H01M8/2484

  characterised by external manifolds · CPC title

• H01M2008/1293

  Fuel cells with solid oxide electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M8/0625

  in a modular combined reactor/fuel cell structure · CPC title